- Shabbat and Holidays
- Passover - Pesach
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Rabbi Mordechai Tsemach ben Mazal Tov
This year of 5769 the month of Nissan contains within it another special natural feature - birkhat hachama - the blessing of the sun. This blessing and ceremony takes place every twenty-eight years, always on a Wednesday, this time on erev Pesach April 8. The celestial cycle of twenty eight years aligns the sun and the adjacent planets and moons in our solar galaxy in approximately the same positions that they were relative to each other at the time of creation. Through the simple blessing that we make on that morning - oseh maaseh bereshith - that the Lord has done and continues even now to create our universe, we acknowledge the fact of creation and the existence of our Creator. It is an affirmation of Judaism’s cardinal belief in God and in His creation of our universe. This year it serves as a fitting introduction to the Pesach seder which will take place that night since the seder affirms the further attribute of God, so to speak, which Judaism emphasizes - the unique guidance by Him of the people of Israel and its special role in human events and history. Thus this month of Nissan represents the two strands of thought and belief within Judaism - the universal and general and the particular and national. It is the representation of these two seemingly disparate views of God’s role, so to speak, in human affairs that delineates Judaism from other faiths. The Jewish God is the God of all, of nature and the entire universe, while simultaneously being the God of Israel and the Jewish people. And this also an important lesson of the month of Nissan to us.
The month of Nissan opens for us a portal to gaze at spiritual greatness. It allows us to see God’s hand, so to speak, in human affairs and especially in human history. It also gives us a sense of how God metes out justice in this world to nations and individuals. Sometimes, as in the case of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, this judgment is public, well-known and irrefutable, not given to denial and/or interpretation. Other times it is not quite visible, understandable or immediate. But the Torah teaches us that it is always present. In Avot we read that the heavenly court’s messengers appear daily on this earth to collect from we humans what we owe to the heavenly court of justice and retribution. But we rejoice in Nissan because that month reveals for us in stark detail the exactitude of God’s judgments and the truth of His justice. Nissan therefore stands as a vindication of our belief in a just yet inscrutable God. That is perhaps why the Torah made Nissan the first of all months, not only in chronology but in symbolism and education as well. This month was given by God to us as a gift as it is written: "This month is yours." It is ours to teach us to recognize these fundamental ideas of Judaism as outlined above. May it yet prove this year to be a time of spiritual and physical redemption as well.
"Pull and Take" the Passover Lamb
Rabbi Yosef Nave | 11 Nissan 5784

The bitter & the sweet
Rabbi Stewart Weiss | 10 Nissan 5784
Seder Night
Chapter Sixteen-Part One
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775

It’s Hip to Dip - The Charoses Saga
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Nisaan 5783

Purim Meshulash Guide for those in Yerushalayim Only
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Adar 2 5768

How Does a Person Convert to Judaism?
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff

What Do These "Shovavim" Days Mean to Us?
Rabbi Gur Aria Argamon | Tevet 20 5783

Purim Meshulash Guide for those in Yerushalayim Only
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Adar 2 5768

Ties to Religiously Controversial Events/Organizations 1. #293
Date and Place: Iyar 5670 (1910), Yafo
Beit Din Eretz Hemda - Gazit | Shevat 5785
Daf Yomi Sanhedrin Daf 56
R' Eli Stefansky | 13 Shevat 5785

Defense vs. Lashon HaRah
The Speaker, the Spoken & the Receiver via Rav Kook's New Account of Mephiboshet
Rabbi Ari Shvat | 12 Shevat 5784
